[STL]

I have a Samsung TS160 DirecTV STB that also has a digital OTA tuner in it. The digital channels are listed as #-# (like 2-1, 9-2, etc.) in the DirecTV guide. I was wondering if there was some way to get my 5040 ReplayTV to command the STB to tune to those digital channels so I can setup a timer (on my ReplayTV) to record them. Has anyone found a way?

 

[Jeff D]

Damn, can we just add this to the FAQ?


No, the replay can only tune standard channel numbers. There's not Serial or IR support for subchannels. There's not even subchannel support in the latest serial command set.

 

[leesweet]

I think this was asked more once today alone, but on the serial topic: Jeff, what 'latest serial command set'? Is/was there an update that allows interfacing to 'modern' STBs? I tried 5.1/19 with my Sony HD300 recently, and still no go... (um, that was for SD channels, if that wasn't clear... I ust want to use serial, never mind tuning DT/HD!)

 

[STL]

Thanks for the answer -- too back it wasn't what I was hoping for. I did do several searches in this forum and didn't get any pertinent hits on the keywords I used. Futhermore, I don't recall seeing this question asked lately (albeit I'm not on here 24/7 and I've only beer lurking here a few weeks).

 

[MrPlastic]

DISCLAIMER: I haven't tried this myself, so I'm not entirely sure it will work, but...


You might be able to get it to work by editing your channel list to only show the OTA channel (e.g., show 7-1, but not cable channel 7, analog OTA channel 7, or a nonexistent DirecTV channel 7). Then, when you enter "7", it might tune 7-1.


I have a Zenith HD-SAT520, and I seem to recall some 520 users reporting success with this strategy.


However, you would probably also need to hack the IR codeset (I think The Robman has done some work in this regard) in the Replay to get it to tune your STB, and even then the channel will have to correspond to an existing lineup available to the Replay if you want to do anything other than manual recordings.

 

[Jeff D]

lee, no the replay doesn't yet support the new serial command set. I was just pointing out that there's no way to address sub channels even with the new command set. At least I've not seen a way.


STL, I was flaming you I was more just stating this should be added to the FAQ as more users get HDTV hardware. I've had the HDTV hardware for 3 years now and the question has been asked close to 100 times in the past 3 years.


As to MrPlastic's idea I'm not sure it would work, maybe some recievers can work in this mode, but the ones I've see would fail. The only reason is that 7 wouldn't tune to the next closest channel for me, it would tune to 7 and that wouldn't be 7.1, I wish the hardware would.


I'd love to know if the HD-SAT520 would because I think that's the sister product to the HD-300 I have an engineering sample of.

 

[MrPlastic]

Jeff,


The HD-300 is the twin of the LG LSS-3200A. Both are a generation newer than the HD-SAT520, which is the twin of the Sony HD-200.


A few quick tuning tests here also have convinced me that the idea I raised in my previous post will NOT work, at least with a 520. With 7-1, cable 7, and OTA 7 present, simply entering "7" takes me to OTA 7. With 20-1 and cable 20 present, "20" takes me to cable 20.


Sorry if I got anyone's hopes up.

 

[Jeff D]

hd200 hd300 arrrgh, my bad. I thought that model number looked familar for a rerason. Zenith was the old OEM and LG is the new OEM. Hard to believe sony uses hardware OEMd by others but that is the case... thanks for the test.

 

[MrPlastic]

Actually, LG has been the OEM all along. They've decided to stop using the Zenith name (except maybe for lower-end products) in favor of building name recognition for the company itself. And since LG/Zenith holds the patents for 8VSB, there are worse companies to use as an OEM.